Increase in the Asian SW Monsoon During the Past Four Centuries
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
               World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, Boulder
                                  and
                     NOAA Paleoclimatology Program
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: PLEASE CITE CONTRIBUTORS WHEN USING THIS DATA!!!!!

NAME OF DATA SET: Increase in the Asian SW Monsoon During the Past Four Centuries
LAST UPDATE: 7/2002 (Original Receipt by WDC Paleo)

CONTRIBUTORS: David M. Anderson, Jonathan T. Overpeck, Anil K. Gupta

IGBP PAGES/WDCA CONTRIBUTION SERIES NUMBER: 2002-049

SUGGESTED DATA CITATION: Anderson, D.M., et al., 2002,
Increase in the Asian SW Monsoon During the Past Four Centuries,
IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology 
Data Contribution Series # 2002-049.
NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA.

ORIGINAL REFERENCE: 
Anderson, D. M., Overpeck, J. T., and Gupta, A. K., 2002,
Increase in the Asian SW Monsoon During the Past Four Centuries. 
Science, Volume 297, Number 5581, 26 July 2002.


ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:
Altabet, M. A., Higginson, M. J. & Murray, D. W. 2002.
The effect of millennial-scale changes in Arabian Sea denitrification
on atmospheric CO2. 
Nature 415, 159-162.

Guo, Z. et al. 1996. High frequency pulses of East Asian Monsoon climate 
in the last two glaciations: link with the North Atlantic. 
Climate Dynamics 12, 701-709.

Guo, Z. T. et al. 2002. Onset of Asian desertification by 22 Myr ago
inferred from loess deposits in China. 
Nature 416, 159-163 (2002).

Porter, S. C. & Zhisheng, A. 1995. Correlation between climate events in
the North Atlantic and China during the last deglaciation. 
Nature 375, 305-308.

Ren, G. 1998. Pollen evidence for increased summer rainfall in the medieval
warm period at Maili, Northeast China. 
Geophysical Research Letters 25, 1931-1934.

Wang, L. et al. 1999. Holocene variations in Asian monsoon moisture: 
a bidecadel sediment record from the South China Sea. 
Geophysical Research Letters 26, 2889-2892.


GEOGRAPHIC REGION: Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean

PERIOD OF RECORD: Holocene

DESCRIPTION: 
Anderson et al. 2002 Faunal Abundance data from Arabian Sea Box Cores.


Cores and locations
RC2735 (18° 14'N, 57° 36'E, water depth 498 m, core length 42 cm), 
RC2730 (18° 13'N, 57°41' E, water depth 698 m, core length 51 cm).


ABSTRACT:
Climate reconstructions reveal unprecedented warming in the last century, 
however little is known about trends in aspects such as the monsoon.  We 
reconstructed the monsoon winds for the last 1,000 years using fossil 
Globigerina bulloides abundance in box cores from the Arabian Sea, and 
found that monsoon wind strength increased during the past 4 centuries, as 
the northern hemisphere warmed.  We infer that the observed link between 
Eurasian warmth/ snow cover and the SW monsoon persists on the centennial 
scale.  Alternately, the forcing implicated in the warming trend (volcanic 
aerosols, solar output, greenhouse gases) may directly affect the monsoon.  
Either interpretation is consistent with the hypothesis that the SW 
monsoon strength will increase during the coming century as greenhouse gas 
concentrations continue to rise and northern latitudes continue to warm.